When the University of Alberta recently decided to seek Information Technology Infrastructure Library certification, it did so with confidence. It knew it had an ace in the hole: Alcatel-Lucent’s VitalQIP DNS/DHCP IP Address Management solution.

The solution, which automates IP address management services across networks, positions Alberta well for certification in ITIL—information technology practices and policies that emphasize alignment of IT services with business objectives. The university has more than 10 years of experience with VitalQIP, which is a big hit at the school and will play a major role in achieving ITIL compliance.

“Pursuing ITIL certification is a major undertaking,” network specialist Rafael Figueiredo said. “Everything needs to be highly structured and controlled, and VitalQIP helps to bring a greater level of consistency and predictability to all aspects of what we do. ITIL dictates that any given operation is executed in a documented, repeatable manner that is independent of the person carrying out the assignment; with VitalQIP we can enforce the discipline to ensure that every task is always performed consistently across the whole environment.”

VitalQIP also allows the school to quickly scale and adapt the way it manages IP addresses, even with ubiquitous notebooks, smartphones and tablets. “We can swiftly accommodate the wave of new devices with practically zero disturbance to operations and still maintain the desired levels of performance, security and uptime,” Figueiredo said. The university has also reduced administrative costs while increasing reliability, manageability, scalability and security within the mission-critical network infrastructure.

VitalQIP has been particularly important as the university—a top 100 school in the 2011 QS World University Rankings—works to further increase centralization. “VitalQIP is a core component in reaching the objectives of being very fast and flexible, achieving better consistency, and reliably providing our clients with first-class service,” Figueiredo said. “We want the quality of everything we offer to make a compelling case for all of the departments to use our services. VitalQIP enables us to offer a standardized set of tools to assist individual groups and to ensure that all deployments comply with the necessary requirements and policies.” Figueiredo added that the University of Alberta provides each department access to VitalQIP to allow them to enter and edit their own records. “This now gives everyone the perfect tool for IP address management, as well as making sure that we have campus-wide consistency and compliance,” he added.

A recent IDC study shows Vital QIP customers can see a return on investment of more than 900 percent and a payback period of 106 days. It is particularly helpful for operations with 1,000 or more IP addresses. The University of Alberta has more than 50,000 IP addresses and 38,000 students, 11,000 administrative staff and 3,500 faculty members. The individual needs of those varied users pose particular challenges for the university, which notes the following as just three reasons it gives VitalQIP top marks:

High-performance, highly available DNS/DHCP (domain name system/dynamic host configuration protocol) services fully support volatile requirements of students and staff;

Consolidated, campus-wide view reduces complexity of managing IP addresses across a multitude of platforms, giving operational efficiencies and enhanced service quality; and

Consistent foundation allows for the rapid and dependable deployment of new services.

“With our current initiatives, the possibility of operating without VitalQIP isn’t something I even want to think about,” Figueiredo said.